diff --git a/hack/lib/etcd.sh b/hack/lib/etcd.sh
index 984bc540a0b..269266ac1d7 100644
--- a/hack/lib/etcd.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/etcd.sh
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 kube::etcd::start() {
   local host=${ETCD_HOST:-127.0.0.1}
   local port=${ETCD_PORT:-4001}
+  local testhost=${ETCD_PUBLIC_HOST:-localhost}
 
   which etcd >/dev/null || {
     kube::log::usage "etcd must be in your PATH"
@@ -38,18 +39,13 @@ kube::etcd::start() {
 
   # Start etcd
   ETCD_DIR=$(mktemp -d -t test-etcd.XXXXXX)
-  kube::log::usage "etcd -data-dir ${ETCD_DIR} -addr ${host}:${port} >/dev/null 2>/dev/null"
+  kube::log::usage "etcd -data-dir ${ETCD_DIR} --bind-addr ${host}:${port} >/dev/null 2>/dev/null"
   etcd -data-dir ${ETCD_DIR} -addr ${host}:${port} >/dev/null 2>/dev/null &
   ETCD_PID=$!
- 
-  echo "Waiting for etcd to come up." 
-  while true; do
-    if curl -L http://127.0.0.1:4001/v2/keys/test -XPUT -d value="test"; then
-      break
-    fi
-  done
 
-  kube::util::wait_for_url "http://${host}:${port}/v2/keys/test" "etcd: "
+  echo "Waiting for etcd to come up."
+  kube::util::wait_for_url "http://${testhost}:${port}/v2/machines" "etcd: " 0.25 80
+  curl -X PUT "http://${testhost}:${port}/v2/keys/_test"
 }
 
 kube::etcd::cleanup() {
diff --git a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
index f6c87338949..c642fc5f959 100755
--- a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
+++ b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ sudo "${GO_OUT}/kube-apiserver" \
   --address="${API_HOST}" \
   --port="${API_PORT}" \
   --runtime_config=api/v1beta3 \
-  --etcd_servers="http://127.0.0.1:4001" \
+  --etcd_servers="http://localhost:4001" \
   --portal_net="10.0.0.0/24" \
   --cors_allowed_origins="${API_CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS}" >"${APISERVER_LOG}" 2>&1 &
 APISERVER_PID=$!